![]() “So one really begins to wonder about the carbon footprint of each and every turbine, and each and every industrial wind farm. “A turbine of 200m in height uses an enormous amount of metal, also requiring mining and intensive fabrication and transport, as well as the importation of electrical wiring, installation of local energy infrastructure in addition to all new access roads and electrical substations. Even a plant with a capacity of about 1.5 MW avoids about 64,000 tons of CO2e-emissions over a service life. “The fabrication of the turbines themselves involves the use of rare earth metals which are obtained through environmentally-damaging methods. Wind turbines protect the climate in the long term. For a wind farm of 35 turbines, that’s close to 4,400 lorries of concrete! Demand is booming for silicon chips, which are embedded in everything from smartphones and televisions to wind turbines, but it comes at a big cost: a huge carbon footprint. Heath, a senior scientist at NREL, and colleagues concluded. At up to 200m in height, the concrete usage is close to 1000 cubic metres – that’s 125 lorry loads of concrete poured into the ground. To be more exact, wind energy produces around 11 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated, Garvin A. “Think for a minute about what it takes to put just one turbine in place. But is industrial wind energy really the way forward? With the launch of GreenerTower and the agreement for RWE’s Thor wind farm, Siemens Gamesa leads the efforts to further push wind circularity and net-zero emissions.“At the moment the majority of our energy demand is met via fossil fuels and there are few that would disagree that we need much cleaner and sustainable solutions. Our project to address emissions with greener steel is one such solution. ![]() With more than 600 gigawatts of new capacity to be installed worldwide in the next five years, it is important for the wind industry to reduce its carbon footprint. Wind power is one of the cornerstones of the green energy transition. Other means include the use of scrap steel in the production process, substituting iron ore and reducing the energy intensity of the overall process. As one of the measures to decarbonise steel production, the electric furnaces will be fed with green electricity produced by renewable energy sources. ![]() Third-party certification will verify that a maximum of just 0.7 tons of CO 2-equivalent emissions are produced per tonne of steel in the new, GreenerTower, while the same steel properties and quality are maintained. By piloting the GreenerTower at our Thor offshore wind farm, RWE is now once again taking the lead by helping to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of wind turbines. We are already testing the world’s first recyclable wind turbine blades by Siemens Gamesa under real-life conditions. At RWE we are fully committed to working towards circularity and net-zero emissions. So using greener steel is a significant step towards producing even more sustainable wind power. ![]() However, tower production accounts for around one third of all wind turbine-related CO 2 emissions. ![]() Offshore Wind already has one of the lowest life-cycle carbon footprints of power generation technologies. Siemens Gamesa today announced the launch of GreenerTower, a sustainable steel tower that reduces a wind turbines carbon footprint by 20. Installation offshore is expected in 2026. 36 of the 72 wind turbines will be equipped with the lower-carbon steel towers. Wind energy has significant growth potential and applicability on a global scale, but approximately 2.4 of wind turbine blades must be decommissioned annually. The tower steel plates are made of greener steel that produces at least 63 percent less CO 2 emissions compared to conventional steel. RWE is taking another step in driving forward sustainability in wind power by being the first developer in the world to utilise Siemens Gamesa’s GreenerTower at its Danish offshore wind farm Thor. In other words, based on 400 cycles, the total carbon footprint associated with the electricity utilizing the battery storage into this wind farm is 1.3 million plus 12.9 million 14.2 million kg. ![]()
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